Manacles and Martyrdom
by FenrirSS
Summary: What happens when a man with a vast empire discovers the existence of faires but chooses to go after Artemis rather than them directly?
1. Prologue

Author Note: This will be quite a dark story. But it will be quite short; 5-6 chapters if it plays out like i think. Anyway... ENJOY!

PS: There will be a few references, see if you can spot them all.

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><p>Artemis was walking in the lesser used parts of Fowl Manor; the north end of the garden. Before his mother dropped into depression it had been a carefully mown lawn, with a large pond surrounded by a small array of trees. Whilst it had certainly fallen into a verdant jungle, it was still a nice place to go if you wanted to be alone; or alone with someone.<p>

As he crossed over the bridge that stretched over the short side of the body of water; he began to stare up at the stars and the moon; virtually lost in them. The moonlight gave everything almost a fictional view; the irony that he was meeting a fairy was not lost upon him. As busy as he may have been, staring into the endless void, he still noticed a heat shimmer in he corner of this eye; this illicited a smirk from him; that grew into a warm, rarely seen smile.

"Hello Holls" he said glancing in the direction of the shimmer which was now next to him. For his trouble he got a punch on the arm.

As she unshielded her face held a look of annoyance, probably to do with the fact that he always seemed to know when she was around.

"I don't even know how you know that I'm there," whilst she said this she possessed an unmistakable pout; which was only accented by her cherubic lips. Her pout dropped and she smiled,

"Oh Arty I've missed you so much!" With this she practically jumped into his arms, hugging his neck and then placed a single very tender kiss on his lips. This however was not enough for the pair; Artemis stroked her face and turned her face to his before giving her a full on kiss on the lips that lasted minutes; but seemed to last eternity; just the way they liked it. Once the kiss broke they remained in the embrace, and Artemis whispered in her overly sensitive ear making her shiver,

"I love you,"

They spent the evening as they had every night since they first admitted their feeling for each other; locked in an embrace not willing to let a single second they have together go to waste. They both knew that they would be in serious trouble should their romance be discovered; Foaly knew, but besides that not a single soul knew they were deeply in love. Lying on a blanket they talked about everything and nothing revelling in each others company, given they have such little time together.

Sadly the time passed far too quickly for their liking; and before too long it was time for their heart felt goodbye that was so upsetting. As Holly turned to leave; Artemis knew she did it reluctantly but also that it was necessary. Once she was out of sight; he just stood with a look of joy and sorrow on his face. After a few minutes of utter silence he walked back to the manor to carry on with his life until the next time oasis he would have with the woman he loved.

If Artemis had an idea of who had been watching their tryst, he would have taken Butler and gone into a safe house in a non-extradition country; it would be the only way he would have avoided the man in the dark room watching the satellite feed over Fowl Manor. The smartly dressed man smirked and mouthed 'got you.' Then he reached for his mobile and typed in a number. Once the person the other end answered he said,

"The word is Now."


	2. Chapter I: Loss of a life

Author Note: This is still much shorter than I would like; but whilst I may have wanted that in my other fan fic to date, but this is [to me at least] more about the originality of the plot. Will get darker in the next chapter, for now... enjoy

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><p><span>The next night: Artemis' study.<span>

It had been only a day since he last saw Holly but he missed her like he hadn't seen her for millennia. It was a nice night; cloudless, starry, full moon and he wished he could spend another night with the woman he loved, _because I don't feel that way every day,_ he thought sceptically.

As his parents, Juliet and siblings were away from the manor for the next week Artemis was busy attempting to make his Lear jet eco-friendly as he was now far more conscious of his actions towards the planet. Partially, though he could not admit it to anyone is that he is trying to seem less human to the People in case they discover the relationship he has with Holly; _maybe it will be less discriminated against as he is a 'good mud man'_. As he had just drawn up the blue print of the new wing design when Butler called to him from his position in the security room,

"Artemis, we have people coming up on us from all sides; at least two dozen heavily armed men. Anything you haven't told me?"

He couldn't help but laugh, even with the seriousness of the situation at hand,

"No old friend; as you know I am perfectly legal now," With this he watched the security footage. He closed in on the apparent commander. From what he could see from lip reading were the words 'necessary force' 'no deaths' and the words that worried him most was that of 'fairy'. He continued talking, "do not approach and do not resist unless life threatening regardless of my situation. Do you understand?"

Clearly Butler was tempted to ignore his master's orders but after a pause he said with a sigh,

"Yes Artemis. I understand."

Knowing that time was of the essence he immediately began to hack carefully into the LEP, locating Foaly. Luckily it did not take long; the few seconds he saves would give him a chance to salvage something from this incident. When Foaly's head appeared on his screen the centaur was as cheerful as ever,

"Hiya mudboy; how goes the romance?"

Artemis normally enjoyed the verbal sparring he and Foaly always did; but his better judgement made him avoid it totally.

"Foaly, I have been compromised. Heavily armed men have surrounded us. They are here for my connection with the People." Foaly clearly wanted to interrupt but Artemis held up his hand for silence whilst he continued. "I am transferring my whole hard drive; you may be able to make some use of it. I am thinking that this is an operation of a large scale. How long would you need to prepare Haven for possible attacks?"

Whilst he waited for Foaly to do some mental calculations he pulled a knife and a small pill like object from his drawer. Grabbing the knife he slit the underside of his arm and pushed the small object as deep into his skin as possible. Foaly answered after his stopped grimacing from the pain of the self mutilation.

"No less than a month. Why?"

At that second his computer pinged with an alert reading, 'copying complete'.

With a sigh Artemis stood up and said sincerely,

"Foaly; we have been friends for a long time. You have been a great friend in fact-"

"Artemis! Why are you saying this?"

He ignored the question and continued,

"-a great friend. You will have the access codes to the whole manor and its varying equipment; you need to destroy everything fairy in this house. Before you do, I ask you to watch. Also… tell Holly I'm sorry."

Foaly merely nodded, for once totally silent

With that he turned back to the many intruders. They were already inside and were quickly closing the gap. Butler had been tranquillised which gave Artemis a little less weight on his shoulders, _At least he's alive_. He then returned to his computer and initiated the self destruct sequence; knowing everything would follow suit through Foaly. Quickly he ran to a place in the floor where a safe was; one he knew they would not find. He then slid off the necklace he wore and gave it one last kiss before sealing away the coin Holly had given him.

If a camera had been focussed on Artemis now they would have seen a look of utter anguish on his face; before it turned to the cold mask he now wore when he had to only. Yet they would have seen something even more extraordinary as the last vestiges of his stolen magic healing his arm. How he had no idea; but he was glad about it as it may hide the item he had slipped into his arm: a sleeper seeker.

As he watched the events unfold through the camera system; he was horrified at what he saw. He saw Artemis walk out of his room carefully and casually straight towards the heavily armed men. Upon reaching them there was an explosion from within his room as his computers exploded. Foaly was amazed to see his friend just submit to their custody willingly. Artemis was dragged away in handcuffs and had his head covered in a hood. Before he got ten steps someone injected him directly into the jugular with what was probably a similar solution to those in the guns. He immediately crumpled to the floor. The centaur felt his stomach knot as he watched his friend's body unceremoniously dragged along the floor away from the manor. Foaly then did the last few things that he had to do. He typed a few things on his keyboard and put his head in his hands as he watched Haven undergo lockdown; and the cameras and other equipment in Fowl Manor slowly melt into a pool of acid. The last thing Foaly thought before he lost all communication with Artemis' home was,

_What am I going to tell Holly…?_


End file.
